Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Tuesday TV/Media Notes

It has been a whirlwind week already on the NASCAR TV and media scene. Here are some news, notes and updates on topics that may be of interesting to you this week:

The Hall of Fame TV begins on Tuesday morning at 9AM ET on SPEED. Three hours of live programming will cover the official opening of this new facility in downtown Charlotte, NC. Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will anchor the telecast. Steve Byrnes, Krista Voda and Jeff Hammond will be interviewing the NASCAR personalities on hand. Ken Squier and Kyle Petty will be offering commentary. The entire show will re-air at 9PM ET as well.

ESPN2 will have a presence in Charlotte and offer an expanded one-hour NASCAR Now program on Tuesday at 5PM hosted by Mike Massaro. On Wednesday's show, Dr. Jerry Punch will be feautured in an in-depth interview with Larry Pearson. Punch will talk with Pearson about his recovery from injuries suffered in a charity race at Bristol, TN.

Viewers may have noticed the changes in the Monday night line-up on SPEED. Jimmy Spencer's What's the Deal show has been cancelled. After Race Hub, SPEED inserted an hour of PINKS All Out before returning to other shows with NASCAR connections. This is a very clear signal that more changes will be coming as SPEED continues to recover from the ill-timed cancellation of This Week in NASCAR.

Big network news this week was the upcoming launch of SPEED2. With all the different motorsports programming available from around the world, SPEED has decided to put together an online broadband channel that sounds a lot like the old SpeedVision. Touring cars, FIA series, FIM motorcycles, rallys and endurance races are going to be featured. The other use of this channel will be to stream live news events and media announcements. This is going to be an "authenticated broadband channel." What the means simply is that you must already be a SPEED subscriber to access it online. There will be more on this topic next week as the details emerge.

The Sprint Cup Series coverage on FOX from Darlington saw a slight increase in the TV ratings. Here is that info from Jayski: NASCAR on FOX had a 3.9/8 overnight rating Saturday night for racing from Darlington Raceway for the Showtime Southern 500, an 8% increase over last year's 3.6/7 for the same race. The Sprint Cup race ran second for the night to ABC's NBA Playoff game.

Finally, the Inside NASCAR on Showtime gang will be focusing on the Hall of Fame for the Wednesday 10PM ET show. This program is actually taped at the NASCAR Media Group studios in the Hall of Fame building complex. Chris Myers hosts with Brad Daugherty, Randy Pemberton and Michael Waltrip on the panel.

Let's use this post for your comments on this topic, including the Hall of Fame ceremonies. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

wow-interesting how TPTB will figure out how we get Speed. Should be a BIIG wake-up call to those that don't have a clue how much info is available on the Web. I won't care a damn about any of the shows they are showing, except live Nascar shows.

Well, if they put all that racing back onto Speed2 and assuming I can get it (I have regular speed now on Fios), I'll probably tune in. I loved watching the rally cars and other forms of racing and hated all the lifestyle programming that Speed insisted on.

I'll have to DVR the HOF stuff since I'll be working and tomorrow night I've got to hit the gym.

It'll probably work the same way ESPN3.com works. You'll either pay a monthly fee for access or it'll be provided free through some deal with your cable provider like Comcast and use your Comcast email address and password to access the content

I have very mixed emotions about the introduction of Speed2. On one hand, I will be glad to have access to more racing events that don't come from one of the, shall we say, usual illicit sources, assuming such coverage is available at all.

On the other hand, one of the main reasons I and others spent $XXXX on new televisions and sound systems as well as $XXX per month on digital satellite or cable is to see racing in crisp, clear detail that does not stop to buffer and where the sound always syncs with the action even for those of us lucky to have a very fast connection to the Internet.

I also wonder what this will do to those with a big cable company as an ISP. Many of them are throttling the bandwidth of those that use too much in their eyes during any one-month period (this includes Comcast among several others). Could we see a bunch of Speed2 fans suddenly realizing that they have an ISP that does not let them download to their heart's desire? If we have any people knowledgeable about this I sure would like to know how much video streaming one would have to do to hit a 250GB limit.

The whole thing is kind of funny and reeks of history repeating itself. When MTV started showing more pseudo-reality programs than music, they created MTV2. Then, when MTV2 started mirroring the programming of MTV, they created even more channels to serve separate genres of music when, at one time, there seemed to be no problem mixing pop with heavy metal and R&B. I wonder how little time it will take before Speed2 becomes Pinks2 and then they start offering SpeedF1, SpeedWoO, SpeedMX, and so on.

I'm sorry to be mostly negative on this announcement which will be nice in some ways to give us access to more racing. On the other hand, we keep seeing these things over and over again and, with David Hill in charge, I just have no confidence that this good thing will not eventually be corrupted.

KoHoSo saidI also wonder what this will do to those with a big cable company as an ISP. Many of them are throttling the bandwidth of those that use too much in their eyes during any one-month period (this includes Comcast among several others). Could we see a bunch of Speed2 fans suddenly realizing that they have an ISP that does not let them download to their heart's desire? If we have any people knowledgeable about this I sure would like to know how much video streaming one would have to do to hit a 250GB limit."

This is my concern, and why SPEED2 won't be streamed at my house. I have HughesNet --- I'm limited to 200MB per 24 hours. I have to be very careful with news sites, etc. that have video embedded that I can't shut off. If I go over, I'm in purgatory for the next 24hrs, reduced to dial-up speed.

KoSoHo, that is exactly the same thought I had, it's just like MTV. I haven't watched any of the music channels in years because of that. Just lost interest. I would probably try to watch some things on it, but I tried the IRL and I just don't have enough bandwidth with my DSL. I wish they would offer a lower quality broadcast as an option--I don't need the bells & whistles. I'm waiting on FIOS and that may be a long time coming, unfortunately.

I didn't think the opening of the Hall of Fame needed a 3-hour show. Those in charge did a terrible job of promoting this event ahead of time. I only knew of it Tuesday morning and set my DVR online. I was expecting the induction of the first 5 mmembers not realizing this was just the grand opening of the facility. That's why I said I didn't think they needed 3 hours of TV coverage for this.

As a moderator on another NASCAR forum, I know how hard it is sometimes to keep things civil and germane. You do a great job, John. I'm glad you made the decision to stay with it and keep The Daly Planet going.

I called Direct TV, the provider where I get Speed, and they didn't know what I was talking about. Why can't they just put Speed 2 on a regular channel? This makes no sense as I don't have broadband. Sheesh

Good to hear parent is doing ok. I know all about that...Dad is 97, Mom 82...they live 20 minutes away.

Watched the beginning of Speed HOF. Listened to a few of the folks I knew...FF the rest. When they entered the Hall didn't do anything for me.

Decided last night to watch NN version. Much better. Very professional and enjoyable. Segments well done. Enjoyed the Ray Evernham piece at the end. Ray is getting better at this TV thing every time he is on. He and Ricky C. need more face time.

This year is really beginning to shape up for NASCAR TV. ESPN2's "NASCAR Now" is really great, other than refusing to promote the start time and TV network for the Cup races on FOX and TNT.

Looks like Steve Byrnes is rescuing "Race Hub" on SPEED from the rotating double hosts. He really has made a big difference and the show may go to one hour soon. That is huge!

None of can help FOX. They need to re-group in the off-season and take a realistic look at the product they put out.

TNT and ESPN promise to come in with innovation and updated personalities on the Cup coverage. This may be the first season since 2007 that the TNT and ESPN portions of the Sprint Cup Series telecast may be much better than FOX. What a switch!

I thoroughly enjoyed the show on Speed yesterday thanks to the DVR. You could see the pride on everyone's face and in their voice. One interesting thing I noticed Mike needed to step on or accidentally stepped on or perhaps both when Ken Squire was speaking on a couple of occasions.

Not to sure about the Speed2 thing. So far not much I would watch but; lets say they streamed the the HoF show yesterday I would be a work and might try to watch. If it would just work based on the provider I wouldn't be able to see it but if I had that magic code since I get Speed at home I could. That's provided I didn't slow down the entire company. I like the code idea better but I'm not sure how they would police it. Email might work but what about those people who have satellite and their internet is from a different source.

I don't understand the bandwidth issues everyone is talking about. With everything I watch online I've never had a problem and have never been in bandwidth jail? I looked on the TWC page and couldn't find anything about limits?